Just the Flu
by The-Broken-Trinity
Summary: The apocalypse is nearing and Desmond is feeling under the weather. What will he do? Simple, let it run it's course.
1. Chapter 1

Lucy frowned as she watched Desmond get out of the Animus. He came out looking sweaty and pale, it's been going on like this for the past few days but Desmond always brushed it off as nothing. "Are you _sure_ you're alright Desmond? You look worse every time you get out of that thing." Lucy gave him a concerned look as she walked up to him.

"I'm fine Lucy, it's just-" Desmond hesitated but continued, "I've been feeling sicker and sicker every time I get out of the Animus."

"It really shouldn't be affecting you physically," Rebecca stated as she stalked up to the two. "Were you already sick before hand?"

Desmond frowned as he looked from woman to woman, trying to recall anything before the past two weeks. "Well, I _did_ get a vaccine for that Green Flu going around but other than that, I never felt sick."

"Did you feel sick at Abstergo? Why did you decide to keep this to yourself?" Lucy sighed, the last thing they needed was everyone getting sick, especially Desmond, the Animus sessions would have to be put on hold so he could recover.

Desmond glowered at her, "I _didn't_ feel sick then and really, it just feels like a damn cold" He snapped, "now if you don't mind, I'm in serious need of a shower", Lucy watched as Desmond stalked off .

"Great, we're stuck wasting _more_ time as other assassins get killed out there just because our little friend over there is sick, just great," Sean complained.

"Can it Sean, we _know_ this." Lucy scowled as she walked back to her desk. Rebecca moved from where she'd been standing back towards the hallway.

"I'll just go make us some lunch, that sound good, guys?"

"That sounds great right about now, thanks Becca." Lucy watched as her friend disappeared around a corner, her smile faded back into a frown. She was worried about Desmond, something just didn't feel right. He had gotten angry with her so easily, after she'd asked him two questions. Maybe he was just cranky or something, hopefully he wouldn't get worse.

'_Okay, I was wrong. He's getting worse'_, the blonde haired assassin thought as she neared the bathroom door, she could already hear Desmond vomiting into the toilet. Lucy knocked on the door, he'd been in there for over and hour already. "Hey Desmond, are you alright?" All she got in response was a groan. She tried the door knob and was surprised to find it unlocked. "You want me get a glass of- Oh my God", Lucy stared at a hunched over Desmond, he still had his clothes on from earlier and he looked even worse, it was obvious he never showered. What really got her was how blood shot his eyes were. "Your fingernails..", they were all bleeding at the sides.

"Just leave me alone," he growled in between heavy gulps of air.

Lucy bent down near him, trying to feel his forehead. "I think we need to get you to a hospital."

"I said _leave me alone_!" He yelled as he lashed out at her, scratching her forearm.

"Argh!" Lucy leapt up and stumbled back into the hallway, surprised. She looked at Desmond and then at her bleeding arm. "Sean, Rebecca, you guys better get over here!" She yelled, still staring at her wounded arm.

Twenty minutes later, Desmond had been sedated, not easily though. A lot of punching and kicking from both Sean and Desmond had been involved before Sean finally stuck the needle into his neck. Rebecca had patched up Lucy's arm and gave her some Advil but her three long gashes still throbbed. She was pretty sure it was swelling up too, not to mention her whole body was starting to ache. "I don't think this is the flu," Lucy muttered as she watched Rebecca go to Sean and ask how their sleeping friend was doing.

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**Okay, so I was planning on just making this a one shot but I decided to change it to a three chapter short story. I tried to drop clues in as to what will happen but I think I made that a bit too obvious. :/ Even so I hope you enjoy! Critics are welcomed!**


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy groaned as she lay in her bed, she had decided to get some rest after Desmond had been put down. She knew she was going to get worse as well so she wanted to get as much rest as possible, too bad she only got a few hours of sleep before waking up to a blinding light. "Ugh, that hurts", she groaned as she put a hand over her eyes and tried to feel around for the curtains to cover the large window in her room. She felt much worse than before, despite closing the blinds, she could see random spots of color, obviously caused by the massive migraine she had. She felt like she had just ran five miles and climbed Mount Everest. "Fuck", she curled up in a ball on her bed, she could already tell that mayonnaise tuna sandwich Rebecca made would end up on the floor.

She tried sitting up since staying in the fetal position didn't help much. _'Why did it affect me faster than Desmond?'_ After all, it took him nearly two weeks to actually feel sick, "not fucken fair" she grumbled as she lay back on her pillow. It hurt to think, she just wanted to fall asleep again but if she didn't think of anything, she'd be more aware of show shitty she felt. There was a soft tap on her door, but to Lucy it sounded loud as hell. "ugh, oh God."

"Hey, how are you feeling?" Rebecca poked her head into her room.

"What do you think? Pretty fucked up right now," Lucy whimpered, "some sleeping pills sounds good right now, right after I vomit that damn sandwich you made me." She wheezed, trying to keep that heavy feeling in her stomach at bay.

Rebecca walked fully into the room and sat at the edge of the bed, "sorry, you know we don't have any." Rebecca stared at the wall, "Shaun doesn't think this is the flu."

"Kinda figured. How's Desmond?"

"Same as you, maybe worse. We wrapped his fingers up but the bleeding won't stop, they hurt like a bitch. He's having trouble talking now too."

"Yeah, mine feel like they're being stretched out, but they're not bleeding." She swallowed multiple times to keep the bile from rising. "At least my cuts don't hurt anymore"

"That's good, hopefully they won't get infected."

'_Too late for that,'_ Lucy thought as she cracked her eyes open and sat up on her elbows. "I want to see Desmond."

Rebecca looked at her sick friend, "why?"

Lucy didn't look away, "misery loves company."

"I'm not sure, I'll have to ask Shaun."

Lucy glared at her friend, "what's the worst that can happen? We're both sick anyways!"

"I'll ask him," and with that, Rebecca turned and left the darkened room. As the door to her room closed, Lucy rolled off her bed onto the hardwood floor, the pain didn't even register, her whole damn body already felt like hell. She reached for the metal trash can by her closet and stuck her head in. Her tuna sandwich finally decided to give her a little relief.

She wasn't sure how long she'd sat there on the floor five minutes? An hour? She couldn't really tell time anymore. Probably wasn't that long though, it doesn't take an hour to convince someone to go into another room.

"Hey, oh jeez, you threw up didn't you?" Rebecca scrunched up her nose, "look Shaun caved but I'm not sure you should be walking around right now."

Lucy looked up at Rebecca, "it's okay, throwing up made me feel a little better and I still want to see him."

"Fine, just hold on," Rebecca left and soon reappeared with Shaun. He opened his mouth to say something but Lucy interjected.

"No Shaun, you can't change my mind. Just help me up guys, please."

Shaun and Rebecca walked over to her and slowly helped Lucy to her feet. Despite their cautiousness, she was still hit with a new wave of nausea , her knees gave out from under her.

"Lucy, are you alright?" A concerned Shaun asked.

"Yeah, just take me to his room," she snapped, she was getting annoyed at being asked that question.

"Look, we're letting you go in there but you're not staying long, alright?" Shaun gave her a-don't-argue-with-me look.

"Fine," she didn't feel like fighting with him anyways. As Rebecca opened the door Lucy closed her eyes. "Ow."

"What is it?" Rebecca asked.

"Nothing, the light just hurts my eyes."

"I'll see if I can find some sunglasses later."As they made their way down the hall, Lucy wondered if Becca had made the same promise to Desmond. No doubt his hurt also.

As they opened the door, she was unsurprised to find it dark also. Desmond was sprawled out on his bed,his grimy clothes still on. Was he still out from the tranquilizers? Or was he just trying to sleep? She wasn't sure but he was a lot quieter than before. The other two assassins propped her on the edge of his bed and took a step back. Both stared at her as she looked back at them."You can go now." With that, they exited the room quietly.

"Hey, you awake?"

His eyes slowly opened, he looked groggy. "Luce?" he whispered as he struggled to get into a sitting position.

She gave him a smile, which looked more like a grimace, "yeah, it's me." He looked at her pale face, his eyes traveling to her bandaged arm.

"I'm sorry." His voice sounded raspy, it probably hurt to talk.

She edged closer to him, "it's okay." She tried smiling again but Desmond shook his head and gave her a solemn look.

"No, it's not. You_ know_ it's not." She moved her face closer to his and grabbed both sides of his face with her hands forcing him to look at her, a move that probably hurt both of them.

"Everything will be _fine_! We'll both be fine! You were just out of it for a bit, it's only the flu!" She said desperately, trying to convince herself more than him.

He leaned his forehead on hers, she could feel his sweat and heat as well as her own. "No it's not, you can feel it, just like me. I'm sorry," he sighed as he closed his eyes.

"For what?" Her voice came out squeaky.

He opened his eyes again and looked straight into hers, "for not saving the world. I- I- I- can't remember things. I'm forgetting. It hurts to try and remember." He looked frightened "I can barely remember anything from my Animus sessions. Only bits, I'm forgetting, I'm forgetting _everything_ and I don't know what to do."

Lucy choked back a sob, her eyes were beginning to sting from tears threatening to fall. "Oh _God_, oh Desmond." How had everything gone to hell so quickly? She wanted to look away, she didn't want to see how fragile Desmond was right now but she was too scared he'd be gone when she looked back. She knew it wasn't the Animus sessions that was causing this because she was beginning to forget too.

"I wish I didn't kill you too," he whispered. It was just now that Lucy realized how close her face was to his, she could feel his ragged breath on her mouth. The tears she'd been holding back finally fell, she didn't know what to say to him, she didn't want to lie to him. "I know I'll be gone soon, so I- so I just want to tell you something before time runs out. Lucy looked back at him and nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks.

* * *

**Okay, so I was going to add more to this but I decided to split that up into another chapter too, so the story will be at least 4 chapters long now. I wasn't very happy with how chapter 1 turned out, not enough detail and I did a bit more telling that showing, so as you can see, this is the result: it's longer and has more detail. **

**Also, yes I did realize it was "Shaun" and not "Sean" after I published it so I fixed that mistake in this chapter. Hopefully you guys don't find this chapter TOO boring, I think it'll get more interesting in chapter 3. ;) Again, critics are welcomed!  
**


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy lay in her bed once more, trying to ignore the pain. She thought it couldn't get worse, but it did, her whole body was screaming. Her hands were the worst, they felt like they were being broken over and over and over but they weren't, she could move them sure but doing so would cause even more pain. Dried tears covered her face, no amount of Advil helped her. "My hands," she whimpered as she took a peak at them. They were different, they looked, God, what was that word? Her migraine prevented her from thinking much. _'They look, what's that word? Another word for bug. Arach something.' _ She closed her eyes again as a soft sob escaped, she was too tired to feel shock, everything hurt so much. _'Arachnid, Arachnoiditis, Arachnophobia, Arachnodactyly, yes that's it, Arachnodactyly_. She moaned as she herd Shaun out in the main room, why was he so loud?

"What, why can't we? We need your help Lisa, Desmond and Lucy are sick and they might die if they don't get to the hospital." He was on the phone, "Well yes, yes, fever, terrible body aches, bleeding, speech impediment and all that." Lucy blinked a few times, her eyes burned.

'_Oh Shit, am I going blind?'_ She continued blinking as she stared at the small cabinet with a lamp sitting on top of it next to her bed. Instead of getting blurry, everything sharpened, she could see the small scratches on the metal of the cabinet as well as the dust on it. Everything in the room also changed into a sepia tone. She didn't question it much, she'd rather have some weird eye site problem than be completely blind.

"Are we?" There was a short pause, "no we haven't felt ill". Lucy slowly craned her head up, yep, her curtains were still closed so how could she see so well in the dark? "You want us to _what?_ Why?" Shaun sounded surprised and then there was another long pause, "oh that's a relief, fine we'll keep the doors locked. So you can't just send over pain killers or anything?" Lucy was getting angry, did they have to be so loud? Her silent sobs turned into small growls, she wanted to punch Shaun and tell him so shut the fuck up. "Alright, thank you anyways Lisa, bye."

'_Finally, he shuts up!'_

"So, what'd she say?" Rebecca inquired.

'_Goddamnit Rebecca!'_

"Well first off, this virus, whatever it is, isn't fatal-"

"Oh, that's a relief!" Lucy sat up and stared at the door, growling, then looked down at herself, surprised.

"She can't help us though, the hospital already has it's hands full with people who think they have this, this Green Flu thing." Since when had her strength returned? Despite how tortured her body felt, Lucy felt a lot stronger than she did the day before.

"That sucks, so what about the pain killers and stuff?" Lucy got off her bed and stood up fully; she couldn't help but release a sob of happiness followed by a nervous chuckle. She wasn't really sure how she should feel right now, she could move but her body still felt like it was on fire.

"Doesn't work, her doctors already tried it on some infected, did absolutely nothing."Another short pause, "she told me to lock their doors."

"What!Why?" Lucy turned to look at her door again, her anger flaring up again.

"_Does it really take this long to explain something? And loudly too? Fuck!"_

"Apparently, those sick with this Flu get a bit, _angry_, at times. I can only imagine the amounts of tempers going off at an overcrowded hospital. She said it was only to be safe."

"Wow, alright, I guess."

"Would you guys stop being so goddamn loud?" Lucy yelled from her room, unlike Desmond, her voice wasn't raspy or anything, she could easily speak. There was another pause and then Shaun spoke again, this time in a much lower voice.

"There's something else, Lisa said she received a notice from CEDA, they're taking over her hospital as well as some other buildings next week, including the Abstergo building." Lucy slowly crawled back into her bed, she may have gotten her strength back but she didn't have much stamina to stay standing.

"Holy shit! Um, what does CEDA do again? It's part of the government, isn't it?"

"Oh for the love of- Rebecca are you serious? Yes it is and CEDA stands for the Civil Emergency and Defense Agency. They deal with natural and man-made disasters that occur on U.S. soil" Lucy curled up in a ball once more as her whole body erupted into shivers.

"Jesus Christ, what are they doing?" There was another pause.

"Evacuation. They're setting up evacuation centers in New York, Massachusetts, Maine and the other northern states."

"Is that why we haven't herd from anyone down south? They all got evacuated, why didn't they tell us then?"  
Since when did they have to evacuate people due to sickness? Lucy closed her eyes, she didn't really care right now. She hadn't slept since yesterday and all she cared about right now was relief, let them lock her door, at least she won't be disturbed that way. She wasn't going to get relief any time soon though, a loud shriek suddenly erupted from down the hall, from Desmond's room. Lucy screamed, the shriek was loud, it hurt her ears. Her body tensed, she knew something wasn't right, the scream from down the hall didn't sound human.  
"Oh bloody hell, what was that? Rebecca, get ours guns"

"But-"

"NOW Rebecca!" Lucy started weeping again, she knew what happened, somehow, she just knew. She wished she had been wrong, she wished he'd died instead, this was worse than death. He was gone, his mind was, then there was a loud crash, Lucy assumed a door had been broken down. There was a flurry of movement and sound outside.

'_So loud,'_ she thought as she got up once more, tears staining her face. There was screaming as guns went off. Lucy didn't want to hear this, she wanted to cry, she just wanted to be alone somewhere. She couldn't open the door, her hands still felt broken, with a loud wail, she started banging on the wooden door and with two hits, it was down. The sick assassin screamed as light flooded her eyes, _'what happened to those glasses Becca promised?'_ She thought as her mutated hands went up to her face. She cried loudly as she ran out into the hallway where everything was taking place.

"Lucy!?" A panicked Rebecca called out but Lucy didn't stop, she turned and ran into the large room with various storage metal crates, her cries louder than even Desmond's animalistic growls and howls.

That was over nine hours ago and Lucy hadn't stopped crying since, she found a shadowed area and just sat there crying. Eventually, all the noise stopped, five hours from then and Shaun was gone, seven hours and Rebecca left too, all that was left were shells, like Desmond. Unless he growled, you wouldn't know he was up there, she could faintly hear their heartbeats though so it didn't matter if they made noise or not. The other two made small grunts and hissing every once in a while as they shuffled and stumbled their away around the safe house. You could occasionally hear them fighting for no reason at all. They dared not touch the third, he was stronger than either, he'd kill them quickly.

When light came, Lucy would get up, face in hands as she'd slowly stumble around, trying to find a dark area and at night, she'd just sit there, crying. The others sat upstairs, doing, well, something. She didn't know how long it went like this, light turned into darkness and then back into light. She found it harder to remember things, _'how old am I again? 27? No no, I'm 28 years old.'_ '_what were their names? Tom and Renee, right? Those were their names, weren't they?'_ She knew she would never forget _his_ name though, she couldn't, she cared too much for him. Edmond, that was his name, she was sure of it.

_'Why won't the pain stop?'_ Her body still felt in pain, she thought it would've lessoned by now, at least gotten tolerable but it never did. At times she thought it had gotten even worse but that might have just been her mind. Lucy looked up from where she had been sitting, another heartbeat. He was in the room, his shrieking confirmed it but she no longer screamed, she'd gotten used to it, it almost felt comforting. She looked at her arms, self conscious despite the fact that Edmond was gone, her arms had lost their tight definition and now were skinny and pale. He was right over her, perched on top of a high crate watching her silently, Lucy stared up at him; his bloodied and dirty white hoodie was now up and covered part of his face.

'_He looks likes someone, who was it?'_ Lucy gave up trying to remember, it was useless. He bared his teeth and hissed at her, as if to challenge her but Lucy knew she was stronger than him, she didn't how. She growled back at him, warning him not to do anything, he disappeared from view after that, however, he stayed with her somewhere in the darkness. She didn't know how long they stayed here, she couldn't tell anymore, it wasn't as dark as usual outside but it there was no light either. Suddenly, he shrieked, his heart rate picked up, he was excited. She may have been stronger but he had the better senses, something had changed and sure enough, she could hear a series if faint heartbeats outside now. The other two must have heard it too since they were running around upstairs. Something was coming.

* * *

**So here's the third chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it so I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did writing it! :) Hopefully with this chapter, you guys can figure out what the virus does. Also a little note, the last chapter, the next one, will take place from a different POV from Lucy. Just a heads up so no one's like "WTF is going on here!"**

**Oh and since I keep forgetting to write this into my author's note section, Assassin's Creed and any of the characters within it do not belong to me! They all belong to Ubisoft! The CEDA thing belongs to VALVe and the only thing that does belong to me is Lisa, haha.**


	4. Chapter 4

Warren Vidic sat at his desk, so much was going on, so many deadlines to meet, if he missed a few, he knew he'd probably end up disappearing. Vidic sighed as he rubbed his temples, his first assistant, Ms. Marino, ended up being one of _them. _Much worse, Ms. Stillman ended up being one of them too, despite vouching for her and saving her damn life. After seven years, _seven years_, he thought she was one of us and now she was on the loose with Mr. Miles somewhere, probably plotting how to steal the remaining artifacts. Abstergo wanted wanted him to find them and _soon, _after all, they disappeared under his watch so they were his responsibility to find . This whole crap with this epidemic of the Green Flu just complicated things, CEDA wanted to use their building to evacuate people. Vidic knew if he didn't get those assassins before then, he might as well pull the trigger on himself. What's worse, Abstergo lost contact with their offices and other allies from Pennsylvania downward. All this happening so close to the launch of the satellite. _'So soon,'_ he thought as he closed his eyes, at least it'd be over soon, only two and a half months left before launch.

"Warren?" Vidic's eyes snapped open to see his friend, Jane Birkam, standing in front of his desk with an amused looked on her face. "Taking a nap I see?"

Vidic straightened up on his chair, 'just resting my eyes, Jane. What is it?"

"Today's your lucky day Warren, your _assistant _ and Subject 17 were spotted at a warehouse some miles from Central Park."  
The elder Templar smiled widely, finally something to look forward to, "Jane, please inform Richard to gather the other security guards."

Jane smiled, "with pleasure."

Warren watched as Jane walked out of his office, a small beeping from his computer alerted him to a new email, unsurprisingly from Rikkin.

**From: **Alan Rikkin  
**To: **Warren Vidic  
**Date/Time: **September 23, 11:56  
**Subject: **Location

Warren:  
It has come to my attention that Subject 17 as well as Lucy Stillman have been spotted in a  
warehouse near Central Park. You are well aware of the obstacles that have developed  
over the last few weeks. I want you to accompany Richard to make sure there are no  
complications during the extraction of Subject 17. The remaining assassins should be dealt  
with accordingly. Any files, books, and computers will be taken from their base and  
eventually air lifted from Abstergo up north along with our own files and information. The  
address to the ware house is the following:

134 12th Avenue

Manhattan, New York, NY 10001  
Nothing must go wrong here Warren, we're too close to the launch date to have anything  
else go awry. I nearly forgot to mention, once this whole mess is dealt with, you will go  
talk with the CEDA workers who will take over our building and offer them our assistance.  
Whatever is going on, I want to know about it. Don't let me down Warren.

May The Father of Understanding guide you to success.  
A.R.

"It'd be my pleasure to escort Mr. Miles back to Abstergo," Vidic said to no one in particular as he logged off his lap top and got up. He glanced out the window, noting it was still cloudy and cold outside, he put on his grey jacket, followed by his lab coat and stalked of his office. Vidic headed towards the elevators, he knew Richard and his team would be ready to head out in the garage by now. He smiled as he stepped into the elevator, he couldn't wait to see Mile's face when he realizes he'd be taken prisoner again, his smile widened, especially when he realized that Ms. Stillman wouldn't be there with him this time. The Templar continued smiling as he stepped out of the elevator.

"Ah, there you are doctor! I thought you might have gotten lost up there for a second!" A tall well built man with greying blond hair walked up to Vidic.  
Warren laughed, "I'm not _that_ old Richard, I see you're all suited up" Vidic looked at Richard dressed in all black as well as wearing kevlar and holding a SCAR._ 'looks like a cliche,'_ Vidic thought.

"Yes we're all ready to go when you say the word, doctor."  
Vidic glanced at the security guards who were standing a small ways back, there must have been, at most, fifteen of them there. "Well, what are we waiting for then?" Vidic nodded to the U-Haul truck they were taking, it would blend in well at the warehouse and it could easily transport 18 men as well as all the loot they'd be taking from the Assassin warehouse. The ride to the warehouse was relatively quick, most cars seemed to be going the opposite way of where they were headed. This unsettled Vidic but he tried to ignore it, about halfway to their destination, it has started raining. "Oh this is lovely, the equipment will get damaged," Vidic mumbled to himself.

Richard glanced at him having herd his quiet complaint, "don't worry doctor, we can probably find a way to get the truck into the warehouse, no need to worry." Soon after, their destination came into view, it looked like any other old run down warehouse. No one would ever take a second glance at it, nice spot to hide out in, good thing they'd been tracked down though.

Richard parked near a small grey door and got out looking at the other guards, "alright boys, there are most likely assassins in there, lethal force has been authorized on all but Desmond Miles, you have all seen his face from the file given to you lot, if he dies, it's all our heads, got it?" The men silently nodded, "alright, lets go." Richard turned and walked up to the door and pulled out what looked like clay from a side pocket and placed it on the door, he backed away and pressed a button from a small device he held. A second later, the door was gone and in it's place was a giant hole. The men ducked into the large darkened room, Vidic being last.  
Vidic looked around and frowned, he could barely see anyone but he knew someone else was here, they were crying, waling more like, from the sounds of it, it was a woman.  
"Jesus Christ is someone _crying_?" One of the men asked.

"No, she's fucken laughing," another replied as richard pulled out a flashlight and turned it on. He searched for the source of the waling until he finally came upon a female sitting on the floor, "what the hell is wrong with her?" He asked, eyes wide as he stared at the pale, skinny, woman with taloned claws.

Vidic recognized her face, "Ms. Stillman?" His voice was small, he couldn't believe what he was seeing.  
"Holy shit, that's _Lucy_!?" Richard exclaimed as he took a step closer to her, at this point, Lucy looked up at them and stopped crying, she slowly got up as she growled at them. Loud footsteps echoed through the compound as two other people entered the room. They yelled, screamed, and mumbled things though all of it was unintelligible. The guards frantically looked around, obviously uneasy about what was going on.

"Where the fuck are the lights?" One of them asked, panicked, just then a loud shriek came out of the darkness, by now Lucy was screaming at them as if warning them to go away, her arms outstretched, her claws stretched our to their full length. Just then two of Richard's men were rushed by two individuals, he turned around screaming at the others to get out of the way so he could shoot the assassins off. They were kicking, punching, and even biting the guards like savage animals, before Richard could even get a shot in, he felt a pain shoot through his back as he fell to the ground. He stared with wide eyes as Lucy stood over him, screaming in a high pitched tone and she began slashing at him.

"Holy fuck, what are we going to do?" one of guards asked as he tried backing away from the scene unfolding before him, "she's like- like a _witch_," he said as he stared at a screaming Richard being torn apart. The other two had started to attack more guards, their mouths and chests bloodied. Beating the assassins with their batons didn't phase them one bit.  
Vidic picked up the SCAR and swung it toward the two attacking assassins, his aim trembling, he had expected to be met with resistance but nothing like this. Vidic had no idea what happened to Ms. Stillman or why she was at her current, _condition_. He changed his aim and pointed it at her, taking 9 shots at her. She screamed in pain but kept tearing Richard apart.

"Why won't she die!?" He yelled as he kept shooting at her, when Richard finally stopped screaming, Lucy stopped attacking and looked around horrified. She placed her face in her hands and ran blindly back towards the group crying, pushing a few out of the way as she quickly exited through the hole they made. Another shriek echoed again before a loud thud was herd, one of the guards was on the floor with a person straddling him and scratching at his abdomen as well as occasionally biting his head.

"Getoffmegetitoffmegetitoffme!" The guard desperately yelled as he tried to defend himself from it's merciless scratches. Vidic ran over to the attacker and pushed him off and looked at his fallen comrade's entrails all over his body, there was no saving him. A growl came from the attacker, Vidic look up and yelled in surprise. He was staring at Desmond Miles, albeit with blood covering his mouth, chest, and forearms. He bloodshot eyes stared back at Vidic as he wrung his clawed hands, Vidic backed away, how was he supposed to bring Miles in in this state? Vidic glanced at his hands, his nails appeared stronger and sharper, they looked around two inches long, nothing compared to Stillman's but dangerous none-the-less.  
Vidic aimed at Miles and shot, causing him to howl in pain and pounce back into the darkness. He turned around and finally killed the two other assassins who were in the process of beating their fifth or sixth victim, apparently, bullets killed them quicker than the other two assassins.

"Oh God, we need to go, we'll die if we stay here!" One of the men shouted.

"_NO_! You'll leave when I tell you to leave" Vidic snarled as he dropped the gun and pulled out the tranquilizer gun he had, "if you leave now Abstergo will be the ones to kill you." Vidic searched the darkness before he saw a silent figure run past him, he shot at it, a yelp followed by a small thud told him he'd hit his target. "Find the goddamn lights! We're finishing this!" he yelled at his remaining men.

"But what about the wounded ones, sir?"

"The ones too hurt will wind up dead anyways, anyone who can still walk will be given treatment at Abstergo." Vidic stated as he watched the outlines of his men reluctantly start to explore the warehouse. Vidic pulled out his cell phone and speed dialed Rikkin, "Alan, you're not going to believe what just happened!"

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**Okay so I decided to break the last chapter down into two chapter as well lol, chapter four became pretty long so I'm separating the last part into chapter five, chapter five is basically when you'll find out what's going on if you haven't figured it out already. Chapter five will be posted soon after this since I'm currently in the process of writing it. The "action" scene in here (if you can call it that) is pretty bad lol but it's my first action scene. :p The last chapter will be from Vidic's POV too, just letting you know!  
**

**Assassin's Creed and any of the characters in this fic do not belong to me, they belong to Ubisoft!  
**


	5. Chapter 5

Warren Vidic didn't know what would happen next, after two hours of collecting everything from the safe house and keeping Miles down, Rikkin had told him to return, another team would pick up whatever bodies were left behind. The boss hadn't sounded exactly happy to hear some of his men were killed, especially Richard; the story recounted about what happened probably sounded incredulous to him. They managed to return to Abstergo and send anyone wounded to the hospital pavilion they kept as well as the loot to it's proper place right before CEDA arrived, Desmond had been put into another room,which was kept locked at all times. It was obvious Rikkin didn't believe his story, despite Vidic's insistence to speak with his team. "Just go down and meet with these men," was the last thing the boss said, in a tone that meant the conversation was over.  
Vidic went down to the reception area to greet any workers but was only met with other Abstergo employees and the brunette who was filling in for Diane, the receptionist, due to illness. "If you're looking for those government people, they're all mostly in the parking lot doing God knows what." Vidic nodded a thanks and took the stairs rather than the elevator to the garage section.

As Vidic walked down into the large parking lot, he was surprised to see the flurry of activity and lack of cars there. They had moved the majority of the employee's cars, including his own, to some unknown location without their permission! Various mini separators were put up as if there would be three different lines for people in total, several tents with what looked like doctors, most seemed to be in biohazard suits too, were also set up in several places. There were also many large trailers parked at several areas of the lot.

"Ah, Warren there you are! Rikkin asked me to help you help them." Jane's curly auburn hair bounced as she approached him.

"I'm sure he did," Vidic said flatly as Jane paced beside him farther into the lot. Vidic walked up to one of the men in a biohazard suits, "excuse me, I'm an employee from Abstergo who's been sent to assist in any way possible. Do you know where the leader of this center is?"

"Oh yes, his name is Jim Campbell, he's in that trailer over there by the pillar with the 'E' on it. I really appreciate you guys helping us, we need as much help as possible with this shit."

"Thank you for the help,"Jane replied as they walked to the yellow trailer with biohazard and warning posters on it. He hesitated to go in, not sure if it was safe in there or not, however, he didn't need to make up his mind, a tall curly haired man walked out of the trailer.

"Can I help you?" The burly man inquired.

"Ah, yes, are you Jim Campball? My name is Warren Vidic and this is Jane Birkam and we've been sent to assist you on anything you need."

The man smiled as he opened the door to the trailer once more, "we can use any help we can get, _especially_ Abstergo's. Come on in, I'll explain what's been going on."

Vidic went after Jane walked into the trailer and immediately noted how many maps, graphs, charts, and photographs there were. He walked over to one map in particular that had large red Xs on several parts of the East Coast, save for a few near Georgia, Louisiana, and the northern states.

"All the Xs were evacuation centers, the Xs mean they were overrun." Jim went over to a small table and sat down .

Jane looked up at him with a shocked expression, "my God, overrun? By what?"

"The infection, we tried quarantining them first but when that obviously didn't work, we moved on to evacuation."

"Infection? This isn't the flu is it?" Vidic asked.

Jim shook his head, "no it's not, we named it that to keep the masses from panicking. We're not exactly sure what it is, I think it's a new strain of rabies, one that particularly affects humans but remains fatal to animals. Tests performed on infected cows show it affects the brain. Not to mention it's _very_ contagious, it can pass through bites, open wounds, and saliva."

Vidic's face paled as he thought of subject seventeen, "so you think it's some kind of super rabies?"

"Quite possibly, I've seen several cases of it, it somehow shuts down the part of the brain that deals with higher thinking levels and essentially makes them into animals, animals that feel nothing but _rage_" Jim paused for a moment then pulled a photo out of a man who looked overweight and who was covered with massive boils. "There have been reports of it causing massive mutation in some infected. Giving them grisly appearances and even unusual abilities." Jim shook his head, "the only confirmation of this- this _special_ infected is extreme bloating in some individuals. The bloating is so intense a slight rupture to it causes to explode. The bile within it's stomach seems to attract other infected to it. Boils, or maybe even tumors start to grow on various parts of the body as well."

Vidic sat there in silence as he soaked in all this information, he didn't know what to say, what could Abstergo do? On the pharmaceutical front, they dealt with bacteria more than viruses. His thoughts drifted to that of Lucy, is that what happened to her? The virus caused her to have horrible mutations? How did she even get it? Warren shook his head, "the mutations, could they be caused by a variation of the strain?"

Jim leaned forward on his seat, "it's a possibility, we really don't know. It could be that, or maybe there's a genetic defect in some people that causes massive change in their bodies when they get the virus or maybe even a combination of both, we don't know at this point."

"What about incubation period?" Jane piped up.

"We're not sure about that either, we've seen people turn but we don't know when they got the virus. We herd people say everything from a week to a day to even five minutes! It's possible it also varies between how healthy and stable a person is and what strain they have, but that's all we know."

"So basically, pardon my words, but you know jack shit about the virus," Vidic said.

Jim sighed as he rubbed his forehead, "yes, you could say that."  
Vidic sat down in a chair, this wasn't good, what would it matter if they managed to launch the satellite if half of what was known was true. Would the artifacts even work on those infected? If the virus was truly as contagious as it was accused of being, how long before this epidemic turned into a pandemic? For the first time in some thirty years, Warren Vidic felt terror. Vidic glanced at Jane, who wore that same horrified look on her face, and wondered how they were supposed to stop something like this?

"What about carriers? What about those who are immune?" Jane asked but before Jim could reply, Vidic's cell phone rang.

"Oh, I'm sorry," He pulled out his cell phone, "Hello? What? I'll be right there," Vidic stood up as he put his phone away, it had been one of the nurses from the medical pavilion, something was happening over there. "I'm sorry, I have to go for now but Jane can fill me in on what I missed later on, she can also negotiate what Abstergo can do for CEDA while I'm gone."

"That's fine, I guess" Jim retorted.

Vidic leaned over and whispered into his old friend's ear, "there's some sort of incident going on at the medical pavilion," Jane gave him a small nod as he turned back around and exited the trailer.

As Vidic crossed the parking lot, he could feel his heart thumping in his chest, he already knew what was going on up there. As he entered the elevator once more he pulled out his cell phone to call one of the nurses but after the fourth ring he hung up, he knew at that point not to go up himself. he pressed one to go back to the reception area, he was going to need as many guards as he could get up there. "CEDA, those morons," he muttered to himself. He'd seen the posters that discouraged people from keeping firearms, he couldn't even find any military personnel when he was watching them set up, _'they'll be the death of us,'_ he thought bitterly.

Ten minutes later, Vidic was at the medical center with around seven guards, he wished he could have gathered more but unfortunately, that wasn't possible at this point. He let a few enter the place to make sure no one attacked them before entering himself.

"Where are they?" One of the men asked, Vidic didn't answer, he didn't want to know where they were. The place was a mess, glass was broken, chairs were on the floor, it looked like someone had trashed the place, there was even blood in several areas, on the white sheets of the beds, on the walls, the floors, everywhere! But there were no people, dead or alive, they were all gone.

Vidic turned and looked at one of the guards, "why didn't security come up when, _this, _happened!?" He motioned the to mess, "I shouldn't have had to call all of you mysel-" there was a loud crash from down the hall, near the elevator, he didn't need to see them to know, he could _hear_ them screeching and hissing as they ran. Vidic backed away as he saw the infected rush his group. "SHOOT TO KILL!" He yelled as he desperately searched for a way out, there were more of them now, not just the soldiers or the doctors, they had found their way down to the other levels too. Vidic made a mad dash down the hall from where the infected had entered from, hoping to get to the elevators while they were busy tearing the guards apart. Vidic looked back and realized he was being pursued by three of the infected, he knew he'd never make it to the elevator so he ran to the stairs leading to the other floors. As he ran to them, he saw that they had torn the doors off their hinges. _'They don't know how to close doors, good!' _Instead of running down, he ran up since the doors one level down were broken, or at least he hoped they were, as they came into view, he was relieved to see they were intact, he pulled open the metal door and slammed it shut behind him.

The Templar leaned against the door as he gasped for breath, he could hear them beating on the door, screaming for blood. Vidic jumped a little as his cell wrung, "Jane?"

"Oh thank God you answered Vidic! I don't know how this outbreak happened! I came to your office to see if you were there, you weren't, I was about to leave but then I herd them outside, so I hid in here until they left. _Please_ Warren, you're the only person I can actually trust around here! Please come get me!"

Warren bit his lip, should he risk his life to save her? He walked over to the elevator, at least he could use it now, she really was his only true friend in this place, if an employee was asked to kill you, they'd do it without a second's thought, even if you had dinner with them! Jane and him started working at Abstergo at the same time, he knew he could trust her.

Five minutes later and Vidic had reached his office, as he walked around in the large room, it was obvious no one was here. "Jane? Are you here?" A shuffle came from the bedroom used to house his prisoners, Vidic slowly walked towards the room, "Jane?" Vidic stopped dead when he saw the person who came out, the room's former occupant, Desmond himself. "Oh, shit," Desmond growled at him, looking as bloody and pissed as ever. Vidic stumbled back as Desmond slowly walked towards him, hissing and snarling, he looked like a bird about to take his prey.

"Oh good, you actually came, you have no idea how hard it was to get Miles up here!" Vidic's head snapped towards the large glass separating his office from the conference room.

"_Jane?_ What the hell are you doing?" Vidic stepped back as Desmond took a rather large step towards him, Vidic saw Jane smile a sweet smile at him.

"Ending this," she took her right hand up to her chest and pulled back her ring finger.

"No! You've worked here as long as I have, you _can't_ be an assassin!"

"Oh I was one of you, but as I got older, I realized what you people were doing was wrong! So, I became a spy for them. I only stayed until this very second because we thought you might know what the hell's going on, you didn't but we knew it was only a matter of time, you see one of our safe houses was to become an evac center too but it was overrun before that happened so I stayed-"Desmond screeched at Vidic as he got on all fours, ready to pounce him like a cat to a mouse. "-stayed until we found out what was happening, and now we do," she pulled down the sleeve to her right arm and showed a faint, healing, bite mark, "luckily, I'm immune." Vidic stared at Desmond as he slowly crawled towards him growling. "Now to go find Rikkin, probably on the roof getting ready to leave." She turned her back to the window and walked to the large doors.

"Jane, Jane! Please don't leave me here!" Vidic cried as Desmond screamed once more and jumped at him.

FIN

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**Okay so here's the final chapter, I didn't really change much since no one reviewed the last chapter, whether they like the change in POV or not. :/ I guess not since there's no more Desmond/Lucy action going on haha. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed and didn't feel too cheated that it ended up being a "rage virus" of sorts ala 28 Days Later, though I did make a few references to the movie haha.**

**Also the whole "special infected" idea goes to VALVe, you could say it's a slight crossover with their Left4Dead series, yell at me for this if you must, I purposely left it out of the summary because I wanted the infection to be a surprise. I'm sure that if you even only herd of the game, you'd go "oh that zombie game" and there'd probably be no mystery as to what was happening to them. So again, if you're disappointed, feel free to voice your opinion on it! Also, yes I know I left the fates of various characters unknown, I did that on purpose, I'll let you use your imagination as to whether Vidic survived or not, where Lucy is...etc**

**So anyways, all the Assassin's Creed characters belong to Ubisoft & the "special infected" belong to VALVe.**

**Please read & review, guys! I want to see what you guys thought!  
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